Dual Universe, Dark Horse Contender to Become the “True Metaverse” Launches Today — And I Have Access Codes For Five Readers!

At long last, Dual Universe has officially launched on Steam for PCs. While on the surface it may seem mainly like a sci-fi MMO of the Eve Online/Star Citizen variety, the breadth of its creative possibilities and scale does make it a contender for arguably becoming the Metaverse. Originally crowdfunded and developed by Novaquark (“Building the metaverse, one voxel at  a time”), it was very much conceived with that goal in mind.

Here’s my long conversation with founder J.C. Baille back in 2019, who painted his vision for Dual Universe becoming the Metaverse.

And here’s my 2018 chat with Will Burns, Vice-Chair for IEEE’s Virtual Worlds Standard Group, who made a case this way:

“I’m not saying they are the Metaverse. But I will say they and projects similar have the best chance of actually evolving into it… It all arises not because you arbitrarily placed them there. But because you created a system that fosters it all naturally. That’s what I see in things like Dual Universe or No Man’s Sky. Not that they are a Metaverse, but that they begin with the right premise to build on that soundly to create a virtual universe that fosters all those things naturally and not arbitrarily. Those I see as most likely to evolve into the Metaverse. Solid foundation and bigger picture thinking.”

As for getting started, Novaquark CEO Nouredine Abboud has this advice for fans of metaverse platforms:

“For all the Metaverse fans out there, take the time to build solid foundations in this game as this can turn into the adventure of a lifetime Mining, building, trading, fighting… this time it’s all connected!” 

While Dual Universe doesn’t enable cash out of virtual currency for real money, a core feature in the strict Neal Stephenson definition of the Metaverse, it does enable integration with the web (the “external technology” piece of the concept) and I can see real currency integration happening later on down the road.

Anyway, time to explore the thing itself. And like the title says, I have five 1 month-long access keys. To claim one, be among the first five followers to follow me on Twitter or Discord (WJA#3523) and request one via DM.